Great Western Coffee Shop

This is the headline in last week's Bath Chronicle about an incident that happened on one of the stopping services from Bath to Bristol (sorry I cannot provide a link but it should still be on their website). It refers to the 08.11 service from Bath Spa, which is the service I took today (from Oldfield Park) and refer to in another thread. Although the article says that the service was particularly overcrowded that day due to the 08.00 HST service from Bath Spa being cancelled, this particular stopping service is always severely overcrowded in my experience (as are most other stopping services before 9am here), and deserves the title the paper have used 'commute from hell'.

Fortunately I wasn't on this particular service, but know some people who were, including one who witnessed the woman fainting. I know that many readers on this forum are GWR staff, and generally I hold them in high regard, particuarlly given what they have to put up with from the TO, but the comments I heard about this incident were shocking. I was told that when the train arrived at Temple Meads (the fainting occurred two minutes short of there), a staff member being alerted to the problem first suggested that the emergency cord could have been pulled (had that happened then a severely overcrowded train with an unconscious person would have stopped in the middle of nowhere) and then when the woman recovered, suggested that there hadn't been a problem because the woman managed to walk away without help.

As I say I wasn't there myself, so these are second hand comments. The person who told me has since decided not to commute by train anymore because they cannot stand having to stand squashed up every day on every journey.




Edit note: Link to Bath Chronicle article (http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/morning-commuter-gwr-train-from-bath-labelled-inhumane-after-woman-collapses-in-crowded-carriage/story-30124093-detail/story.html) added, for context. CfN.  :)

Growth is being held back because the trains are so busy that some people simply won't use them.  It's instructive to look at graphs of passenger numbers on Cardiff to Portsmouth when the dropped from 3 to 2 carriages then rose back to 3; passenger numbers dipped and rose again to match the train length.  And the Cardiff - Portsmouth passenger numbers graphs for that period are quiet different to the graphs from other lines.

When a service is so busy people avoid it, they don't all abandon the train through - many of them move to an earlier or later train. And the financial model (profit) is probably better if this happens to some extent, with slightly fewer passengers carried over all, but at the saving of hiring an extra carriage.   Once the earlier or later run of the same unit is heaving too, the case for an extra carriage becomes financially as well as socially justified.

I am delighted to report that the 17:36 off Swindon is now so busy that people are using the 15:12 off Swindon when they can ... which is also being reported as full and standing.  And I can report that the 07:32 off Westbury gets stuffed into Chippenham ... and the next cycle round at 09:48 off Westbury's also heading that way.

If I recall Wessex increased train lengths on the Portsmouth run from 2 to 3 in around 2004, only for FGW in their wisdom to reduce it in the disastrous Dec 06 franchise change. It was only restored to 3 in around 2008.   So with passenger growth since 04 (albeit maybe suppressed due to lack of capacity), it's hardly surprising that a fourth car is now desperately overdue and a fifth would hardly be over-provision.

It's disappointing that we have yet to see a coherent plan for the turbo cascade that sets out the various stages, and the net increases in capacity that can be expected in each region, allowing for units being redeployed elsewhere. I appreciate that some of the dates are still a little fluid, but I suspect that are a lot of interested parties that would like to understand what is at the light at the end of the tunnel, when it is finally reached.

A simple example would be when now is  the Transwilts expected to move to a 2 car unit? Is it when the Maidenhead peak services turn electric in May/June, or Dec/Jan once the full electrification as far out as Didcot becomes available?   

It always baffles me that train makers in the UK do not have a regular order for 'local' and 'regional' trains. Surely the trend over the past 20 years would have justified for this?

The poor provision and the failure to provide anymore rolling stock for GWR over the past 15 years, with repeated contract extensions without anything being done apart from a delayed mythical, yet to materialise, cascade of rolling stock from London Area is disgraceful.

Seen it happen several times on Paddington - Reading services particularly in the summer when the temperatures make it an even more inhuman experience than usual.......grinding to a halt at a signal and standing there for 15 stifling minutes (especially when the aircon fails and pumps out hot air) is truly an experience no-one should have to endure.

The usual platitudes are forthcoming + the alternative view "well it's their own fault for getting on a packed train in the first place" but little is practically done to improve the situation.

Maybe when the mythical new trains & Crossrail with the long promised oodles of extra capacity materialise we will see an improvement (for a year or two), and this will release a few "new" (20-25 year old) units for services further West.

The current plan is for 22 Turbos (16 3-car and 6 2-car, so 60 vehicles in total) to be transferred to Bristol area by this time next year, when Paddington to Didcot is Class 387s.

There was a plan around 2007 to buy 200+ DMU vehicles to top up capacity on routes just such as this.  It got as far as an ITT then the Labour government cancelled it in favour of what turned out (with hindsight) to be impossible electrification strategy.   

I expect it won't be easy to find on DfT's site as they generally archive their previous big mistakes ideas.

Edited to add, it was a bit later than I thought, I found the 2008 ITT.   But it had been discussed earlier, during 2007.

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090510234918/http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/pi/diesel/invitation.pdf

Paul

So, the plan is to replace all local rolling stock with 22 Turbos.

Not sure 16x3 and 6x2 will be enough!

AIUI that's just a first phase, and it isn't a one for one replacement, there are less units leaving, and also some short HSTs yet to be produced.   

Numbers seem to be changing all the time, presumably to reflect the electrification strategy (assuming there still is one).

Paul

I am not sure it is ALL local rolling stock.  As a minimum it will be enough stock to allow enough of the 158, 153s to be moved further West to meet extra demand their and to allow pacer retirement.  But it is going to be tight.  Presumably, more Turbos will become available to move further west when the electrification to Oxford and Newbury is eventually finished later than expected.  

It may have been asked elsewhere already, but couldn't better use be made of the HST power cars by using 1 Cl.43 + 4/5 + DVT? I've been on an HST many years ago (before any of the re-engineering was done) from Euston to Llandudno Junction in the past running on a single engine the whole way (not significantly delayed as I recall), so power/traction shouldn't be an issue with a reduced trailing load...whether acceleration would be an issue, I don't know, however there is a cabride video on YouTube featuring a 2 + 10 HST from PAD to Temple Meads which was happily trotting along at 125mph where permitted and didn't lose any time between the 2 end stations (apart from a stop to check a 'noise' heard by a trackworker)

Have you got a link to this 2+10 HST cab ride video?

Yes, I'll try to remember to post it later when I can re-browse YouTube freely - the only confirmation of 2 + 10 is from the background conversation in the cab - it's one of those old (1990) RailScene films with the geeky sounding bloke nattering away in the background to the crew. Either way, it's quite an interesting watch and a bit of visual blast from the past  :).

Here you go:

https://youtu.be/mvfZLFESS3o (https://youtu.be/mvfZLFESS3o)

At about 3:20 camera chap says something like "oh, we've got 10 on have we, one of the long ones?", driver (the south wales voice) just about audibly replies in the affirmative. I also spotted in the first couple of minutes a 2+7 and a 2+8, so set lengths clearly weren't as, er, set as they are now. I seem to recall a subsequent conversation about acceleration performance later in the film where the 10 trailer cars were mentioned again - not really enough time to watch all the way through right now!

Worth a watch anyway, pre-privatisation, pre-electrification & remodelling of Paddington and also before the demise of the rather fine Paxman Valenta.

I think that '10' refers to total length. I've never heard of, seen pictured, or seen video of a 2+10 HST in passenger service. The video in question (one I've watched a few times - mostly with volume muted to avoid the inane wittering) shows a call at Bath Spa - one station where 2+8 is the maximum that'll platform.

With thanks for your original post, froome, I've now found and added a link to that particular article from the Bath Chronicle.  :)